Direct Navigation: Your Online Business Boom?

One of the newest trends in online business – buying domain names and then selling them for a profit – has actually been around for years. But new interest in the market is boosting revenue for investors, potentially reaching $2.5 billion in 2006.

by Kristina Knight

The biggest reason for the increase seems to be direct navigation, the practice of typing easily remembered business names or domains directly into Internet browsers. Those website owners translate the increased traffic into cash by littering the space with ads from Google, Yahoo and other online advertisers.

Virtual real estate has been around as long as the Internet itself, but with new suffixes popping up domain name sales are on a new tear. Now domain investors are driving up the price, hoping for a bigger return on the investment. Dot-com is still the most sought after address, however, new suffixes from other countries like .eu for the European Union, .cn for China and .es for Spain are now heating up, too.

What does this mean for online marketers? It could be the right time to snatch up those “other” domains you’ve been thinking of purchasing. By having more than one domain you increase the opportunity for traffic. Simply direct the alternate sites to your main landing page and watch the traffic increase.

Direct navigation won’t displace search engines for finding most websites, but with more people typing directly into browsers it won’t hurt your business to invest in additional domains for your website.